Glass cabinets housing leather-bound books and a treasure trove of artistry catalogued years of Liberty's past in the hidden archive room on the 4th floor of the infamous landmarked department store.
We stepped inside and caught up with Liberty's Archive team to discuss the rich references used to develop our rug collection and the important role each print has played in the history of the brand.
Hera is Liberty's most iconic pattern and one of the best documented in our archive. Two key designers have been linked to its creation story, both were influential men in the creative circle surrounding Arthur Lasenby Liberty. The story begins with an old photograph found in Arthur Silver's archive. Silver was a leading man in the London design scene, revolutionary for photographing the work of his studio from which a talented group of artists created many of Liberty's best-known Art Nouveau designs. Hera first appears in Liberty's records in 1887, identified by its distinctive Peacock feathers, a signature of the Aesthetic Movement style.
Unmistakably Art Nouveau, Ianthe first made its entrance into Liberty's fabric ranges in 1967. The cultural youthquake that shook London in the 1960s re-evaluated styles of late 19th century design and found new relevance and beauty in their bold, sinuous lines, triggering a Victorian revival. Thanks to the rediscovery of Liberty's Victorian printing blocks, several Art Nouveau designs were brought back into production and printed on silks and chiffons for the couturier trade. In
several cases, the large-scale patterns were transferred to screens—a much more modern printing method—and recoloured.
Ianthe was originally designed in France c.1902 as the wallpaper and border you can see here. In 1966, it was rediscovered in an old folio of designs and sent to be redrawn for Liberty by the Haywood Studio. Here, you can see a vividly coloured paper 'print-impression' of Ianthe, created in the workshop to test the screen before being printed on fabric.
Books of old paisley and chinoiserie prints are a particularly special part of the Liberty archive – their bindings have frayed over time from too much love and repeated searches. Generations of Liberty designers have taken influence from these books which are rare, beautiful, and notable for their spectacular flower-forms and curiously stylised creatures.
Here, you can see the artwork for Milo which was painted in 1972 by the Liberty Design Studio. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the fashion for travel and alternative lifestyles give new relevance to designs that had arrived in the Liberty archive 100 years earlier. 1970s bohemian style borrowed patterns from India, Indonesia, China, and North Africa. This growing trend led the designers to turn their attention to
examples found in some of Liberty's earliest samples books from
the time Arthur Lasenby Liberty was importing most of his fabrics.
Milo's characterful combination of foliage, flowers, bright-eyed deers, and sinuous climbing tigers is a celebration of traditional motifs recoloured for modern times. It is a testament to the enduring beauty of patterns drawn many years ago in different lands by designers who probably couldn't imagine the power of their designs living on.
In 1891, a young and talented Welshman named John Llewellyn became head of Liberty's silk department, heralding a decade of technical innovation and design experimentation. The swirling background in Hana's design mimics the energetic lines of the traditional Japanese wood-block prints, influenced by the East throughout the 1880s and 1890s. Here, you can see the Liberty archive sample of Hana dating from ca.1900. It shows the subtle, authentic colours that Llewellyn demanded from Liberty's printers who employed both old and new technologies to create a distinctive, hand-crafted feel. Hana's Art-Nouveau styling celebrates a spectrum of Japanese design, from its sweeping lines of Poppy petals to its bundles of blossom flowers.
